Bacardi Jackson

Bacardi Jackson is the interim deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Children’s Rights Practice Group. She oversees work dedicated to protecting children by stopping the school-to-prison pipeline and ensuring equitable access to mental health services and high-quality public education.

Previously, Jackson was a trial attorney at Tucker Law Group, where she established and managed the firm’s Florida office. She represented a wide range of clients, including Fortune 100 companies, colleges, universities, governmental entities and individuals. She began her legal career at the international law firm of King & Spalding in Atlanta before joining Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia. As a law student, she was an intern at the SPLC.

An active member of her community, Jackson served as pro bono counsel for several nonprofit organizations and has served on numerous local, state and national nonprofit boards, including the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, Leadership Florida, the Stanford Alumni Association, the Broward College Foundation, the Community Foundation of Broward and Dialogues in Democracy Foundation.

Jackson has been recognized as a Florida Super Lawyer from 2020 through 2023. She was honored by Legacy magazine in 2015 as one of South Florida’s 25 most influential and prominent Black women in business and leadership. She was the inaugural recipient of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s Distinguished Young Leader Award.

Jackson received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University. She received her law degree from Yale Law School.